Black Friday deals can be amazing, but just as often, they feature a marked up retail price to make it look like they're discounted more than they are. That, combined with different retailers offering different deals makes it
hard to figure out if you're walking away saving any money when you're lining up in the cold.

If you're still planning on hitting up Black Friday
after doing the math to make sure it's worth it, you still want to make sure you're getting a good deal while you're there. Thankfully, there's a few ways to accent your shopping experience whether you're online or in the store.

Mental Tricks

Be Wary of Brands You've Never Heard of: While brand loyalty isn't a good idea, buying a high dollar product from a company you've never heard of isn't either. After digging through all the Black Friday deals, it was clear that a lot of those "big" sales were on bad products. Just because you can pick up a 40-inch TV for $400 doesn't mean you should, especially when it's manufactured by a company no one has ever heard of.

Stick to Your List: You should already have a good list together where you've already researched and price checked everything, so when you're in the store, don't venture off the path and grab anything just because it has a huge discount.

Buy One Get One Deals: For most intents, buy one get one free or half off isn't really a deal, unless you need two of the item for some reason. It might seem in your brain like you're getting it for free or half off, but they're not really deals unless you actually need more than one. Quickly do the math, compare it to the price of purchasing one by itself and make your decision from there.

Remember the Classic Manipulative Sales Pitches: Black Friday is often more about jacking up the retail price and adding gift incentives than it is about providing a clear deal. If it doesn't sound like a deal, it probably isn't. Remember that MSRP is meaningless on Black Friday because products rarely sell at that price. Rebates almost always have to be mailed in, so don't decide based on those incentives. The same goes for toss-in items like traveling cases. Sure, they might be handy, but the quality of the free cases often makes them worthless. Basically, even on Black Friday, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Below we have a list of mobile and webapps so you can quickly check the standard sale price and find other similar products while you're shopping.

Mobile

Red Laser (iOS / Android): Red Laser is about one thing: scan an object and it'll pull up a price comparison from various stores based on your location. We don't know if it will reflect Black Friday deals, but it will at least give you a better idea of the true retail cost so you can figure out if you need to purchase it today. Google Shopper is a good equivalent if you're looking for alternatives.

TGI Black Friday (iOS / Android): Out of all the Black Friday specific apps we tested, TGI Black Friday is the only with a reasonable search feature. It doesn't do price comparisons, but you can search for generic terms. For instance, a search for "32 TV" brought up a list of a few of the deals for 32-inch TVs. Not all of them, but if you're not brand-minded, you'll see at least a few of the different offerings in the size range you're looking for. You have to be very simple with the search to get results, but it's better than nothing and gives you immediate access to finding other brands.

Amazon Mobile (iOS / Android / Windows Phone 7): If you don't need to have your gifts in hand today, the Amazon Mobile app is a great tool for getting a good overview of prices available online. Since it lists Amazon and its affiliate sellers, you can gauge whether something is a good deal almost immediately.

At Your Computer

Being in the heat of the moment at 4 a.m. at a store, it's hard to gauge your mental well-being enough to know how you'll react to supposed deals. If you decide to stay home instead, you can still snag a lot of deals online, although many are restricted to in-store purchases. These webapps will come in handy for price comparison beforehand, or in the heat of the moment.

TGI Black Friday: Like the above mentioned mobile app, this is more about comparing across different products than it is one specific one. So, if you're looking for a certain sized TV or hard drive, but don't care much about the brand, this is the best way to go.

Google Product Search: If you're looking for an effective, quick look at different prices across a variety of vendors, Google Shopper is the easiest to check in a pinch. One quick search and you'll know if a deal is really a deal. It's not about finding a better deal, it's about making sure the one you're looking at is really a deal.